Syracuse, N.Y. - Upstate Medical University has come under fire for using live pigs to train doctors how to make incisions, insert needles and perform other procedures.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit group opposed to the use of animals in medical education and research, is accusing Upstate of violating federal law by not considering alternative training methods that do not involve animals.

The group filed a complaint Thursday with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, asking the agency to investigate the use of live pigs in Upstate's emergency medicine residency program.

Upstate said in a prepared statement it stopped using live animals in its emergency medicine training in March and switched to "more valuable teaching methods." It said the decision to stop using animals was unrelated to the group's complaint.

"There are currently no plans to resume this teaching protocol in future emergency medicine training," Upstate said.

The group said it learned Upstate was using live pigs for training in documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Law. Dr. John Pippin, the committee's director of academic affairs, said his group filed the complaint after Upstate officials did not respond to numerous letters from the group about the issue.

Pippin said he was puzzled to learn Upstate was using the pigs because it has a simulation center equipped with high-tech computerized mannequins, known as human patient simulators, used to train resident doctors. He said 110 of 128 emergency medicine programs surveyed by his group use only non-animal methods to teach residents.

Live pigs used in emergency medicine training are typically anesthetized, subjected to numerous invasive procedures, then euthanized with drugs, Pippin said.

"Why would you kill animals unnecessarily?" Pippin said. "We think it's wrong because it's a substandard way of teaching."

Upstate said its training program is fully accredited and conforms to current standards of practice.

In its complaint, the group said Upstate violated the federal Animal Welfare Act by using animals without considering alternatives. The group said Upstate's animal use protocol stated: "No other model exists for the training of these procedures."

You can contact health writer James T. Mulder at jmulder@syracuse.com or (315) 470-2245. Follow him on Twitter @JamesTMulder